ilikesittight Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 I plan to buy more condos if there is any kind of downturn in the Thai economy or if the US dollar goes back above 40 because the bulk of my assets remain there. There are many little techniques to know in order to get the best deal. Luckily, I met a few key people who helped me along. If anyone is really interested in buying a condo in Bangkok, please contact me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torrenova Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Come the next six months I would be surprised if I have not entered the property market in Pattaya or Hua Hin / Cha Am. I'll buy somewhere nice to live in - I don't need 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms - I can only shit on one toilet. The others I will rent out, either to long termers or holiday rentals. Being in the bar business in Pattaya, I have access to many contacts who actively want to rent in Pattaya for a month or more and cannot get acceptable deals from the hotels. If buying a condo, make sure that it can be farang owned (that is part of the 49%) and I would not bother with large projects with multi millions of baht. A number of smaller units will suit me fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SingaporeSteve Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 uniformguy said:I am considering the purchase of a condo in BKK for around the 5 million baht range. The market seems to be slipping a little but as this would be a long term investment I'm not that worried. What concerns me is that most of you seem to rent here. Is that because the company pays for it or is it that most don't have the money to buy one outright? I have just sold my house in Australia and want to buy somewhere else. If you had the money where would you buy? uniformguy If I bought in BKK (which is highly unlikely), it would be most likely at one of the Crown leasehold places near the Hyatt and Regent (or is it the four seasons now). They are cheap (because they have a 25yr lease) and in a very good location. You could get a nice place for less than 5m and always rent it for 50k month if its a spacious(ish) unit if you ever needed to. Also location is considered very good and near BTS. You would always get your money back at least even if you never renewed the lease after the 25yrs is up providing you rented it out for 10 yrs. Also solves the problem of trying to selling it !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 Yes, I would buy if I had the money...but all warnings are for another crash in Thailand, and thus property should go down, but who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dddave Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 With the ageing populations of northern Europe selling their hugely appreciated local dwellings and seeking warm and affordable retirement areas, I don't see how the Hua Hin and Pattaya/Jomtien areas can miss over the next ten years. All the Mederterranian coastal areas are overpopulated and overpriced. Phuket and Samui have realy gotten up there price wise and aren't particularly handy, although more direct Europe to Phuket flights will probably become available. This is a population used to travelling and flying long distances, so the idea of being so far away from family isn't that much a factor. The new airport will make it even easier. All the infrastructure is in place for an esentially european lifestyle, including healthcare. I think those areas will grow as fast as they can build. As an afterthought, if the violence in the south starts to spread north, then ignore all the above: that is surely the greatist crisis facing Thailand, only the leadership can't seem to figure that out. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sukhumvit Posted March 24, 2005 Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 Europe's still got lots of places where it's possible to buy land outright with no concerns about being a non-native resident. Plus many countries still have reasonably priced properties. For instance, Bulgaria. On the Black Sea so good summer weather. Cheap as chips at the moment. I was speaking to a guy who's mate bought a place for £8k which is roughly 12-13k euros. That's pocket change compared to UK prices. Parts of southern Italy and southern Spain are still cheap. France has tons of 20k euro ruins to renovate. Further afield, Dubai has relatively inexpensive apartments for less than £100k. Guaranteed great weather. Possibilities of leasing the joint out. Maybe possible to qualify for residency status and enjoy tax free lifestyle? Or even Florida has affordable properties for sun starved northern Europeans. The average European flying to Thailand once or a couple of times a year may as well stay in a decent hotel and enjoy all the benefits of room service, meals, bed linen being changed every day, no hidden service charges or bills rather than have the hassle of condo ownership in LOS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legover Posted March 25, 2005 Report Share Posted March 25, 2005 buying's no problem. quite easy to get someone to accept your money. couple of things. need to be aware of the 5 rai condo rule. this little known reg could cause some misery from ambitious bureaucrats later. 7%'s not a bad return, (p/e about 160) that would represent zero vacancy rate before expenses, so there'd be some discount to that. would there be any difficulty repatriating money from a sale if needed? that would depend on the gov's prevailing financial policy at the time. the market's run up quite rapidly since 2000, my view is the easy money has already been made. for what it's worth US housing sector stocks are roughly as overpriced as tech was at the 2000 peak. a few people i know who've lived in Thailand for years see property as a minefield. Marc Faber, my favorite economist (lives in Chiangmai now) has a good chart showing this at http://www.quamnet.com/fcgi-bin/columnists.fpl?par2=5&par3=1 the index has risen 10-fold since 2000 which he calls extremely extended. if OZ & the UK have seen their peaks & the US follow, what of Thailand? South Africa & Ireland are the worst cases. South Africa was up 29% last year, Hong Kong 28% Spain 17%. Ireland up 180% since 1997 (Economist 5 Mar) === Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted March 25, 2005 Report Share Posted March 25, 2005 "...5 rai condo rule..." Arai na?? =What? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legover Posted March 25, 2005 Report Share Posted March 25, 2005 until April 2004 2.2 The ownership in condominium units by the alien and juristic person in 2.1 shall not be in a higher proportion than forty nine percent of the total space of all units in that condominium at the time of the application for condominium registration under section 6 with the exceptions that: a. A condominium in which the condominium units are to be owned by the alien and/or the juristic person specified in 2.1 in a higher proportion than forty nine percent must be located in the area of Bangkok Metropolis, municipality or the City of Pattaya and the land on which the condominium is situated shall not, when combined with the land provided for common use or benefit of all co-owners, be more than five rai in area. Also, the condominium units in such condominium shall not be less than forty units and the condominium shall already be registered not less than one year prior to the date of application for the alien to own the condominium units in the proportion higher than forty nine percent, and such condominium shall not be situated in the area of military safety zone under the law on military safety zone. b. It is provided in section 9 of the Condominium Act (No. 3), B.E.2542 that at the expiration of five years as from the date of the entry into force of the Condominium Act (No. 3), B.E. 2542 (28th April 1999) the provisions as set forth in a. shall be repealed and the alien or juristic person having obtained the condominium units under a. or the alien or juristic person specified in 2.1 to whom the condominium units are transferred from the aforesaid alien or juristic person may continue to have ownership in such condominium units although in the higher proportion than forty nine percent of the total space of all units in that condominium. == looks like it's been repealed. you could legally own units iwhere more than 49% of the block was foreign owned only if total land area was less than 5 rai & situated in only Bangkok Metro or Pattaya Muni waiver areas. outside these areas i think the 49% rule is still in force. around Hua Hin there are large devels on land greater than 5 rai. wonder how these rules apply here. who owns the land the condo buildings are built on? what if they decided to redevelop? does this repeal include or exclude condos outside Bangkok/Pattaya? http://www.dol.go.th/guide/foreigner_Eng_ver.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2005 Report Share Posted March 26, 2005 Thanks for all the detail...... it makes interesting reading. I have done extremely well with my property in Dublin so I want to hold on to that. But as I am living here now I am exploring all the options to buying here so as not to have to pay rent every month. Renting in my opinion is just making someone else rich!!! I have been told that the problem with buying here is that: 1 Thai people only want to buy a new property so there is very little capital gain to be had. 2 The baht is a volatile currency, as we saw in 1997, so you could have a big capital loss instead of gain just on the currency exchange rate. 3 There are far too many top end exclusive condos just about to come on the market and this will surely lead to a softening of prices over the next two years. I am not in a position to buy this year but I will have some money maturing next year so I'm interested in all angles of this discussion. uniformguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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